Many studies have suggested that commonly encountered denaturants, such as urea and guanidine hydrochloride (GdmCl), can affect the hydrogen bond network of water molecules and therefore the stability of proteins.  However, very little has been done experimentally to verify whether denaturants also affect the strength of hydrogen bonds formed between water and protein polar groups, a factor needed to be taken into consideration in order to yield a full understanding of the mechanism of action of denaturants.  In this talk, we will discuss how nitrile based infrared probes can be used to directly probe such effects and how the results thus obtained can improve our understanding of the mechanism of protein denaturation.

Probing how denaturants affect the strength of hydrogen bonds formed between water and protein polar groups

244th National Meeting (2012)

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